Tuesday,
January 28, 2003
To absent friends
I was sitting in the Linguistic Atlas office, transferring linguistic interview information into the computer system the director had set up and swearing under my breath at DOS. My boyfriend and coworker Patrick was fiddling with the radio, trying to find a decent classical music station, when we tripped across NPR and heard about the Challenger explosion.
We looked at each other in shock, then hightailed it to my mother's office where they had a TV, to watch the replays of the Challenger's final takeoff. It was like watching the Towers come down -- you couldn't believe that the beautiful plume of smoke would suddenly turn into an explosion, raining flaming debris down on the ocean.
To the memory of Francis R. Scobee, Commander; Michael J. Smith, Pilot; Judith A. Resnik, Mission Specialist 1; Ellison S. Onizuka, Mission Specialist 2; Ronald E. McNair, Mission Specialist 3; Gregory B. Jarvis, Payload Specialist 1; Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist 2; and to the Challenger herself -- absent friends.
Meanwhile, back in Washington. . .
It's amazing, how the State of the Union address loses a certain amount of punch when you read it on-line at CNN instead of listening to it. Does anyone in that administration know how to balance a checkbook?
*sigh*